Saturday, October 17, 2015

Amazon's love/hate with erotica.

Look, it's Amazon's sandbox, they can shit in it if they want, they can let only the cool kids in if they want, they can do whatever the hell they want, because TOS, yo. (Once again, NOT censorship, because they're not a government agency, they are a business and can sell what they want.) It makes them a shit-ton of money that they sort of quickly wave behind them so they don't have to admit it makes them a shit-ton of money.

Route customers to THAT link. That way they won't miss any of your books. (And keep you author info updated for people to find your site.)

If this has happened to you and your books are now unsearchable behind the "adult filter," stop and calm the fuck down. Don't get your britches wound into a knot. It won't help your blood pressure any. Just make a list of your ASINs, write Amazon, and keep hammering at them to move your books. If enough authors start doing that, this will become a MAJOR pita for Amazon and likely they'll back off. Be POLITE. But be persistent. Keep escalating it. I've got a shit-ton of books that I'm going to have to wrangle with them about.

If vast numbers of authors politely go after Amazon and give them a headache, chances are they'll back off. No, not a given, but let's be honest here, who honestly wants a shit-ton more work coming up into their BUSIEST FREAKING TIME OF YEAR?

Probably not them.

Use the excuse that Fifty Shades of Grey and other books are HELLO, erotic, and THEY aren't whacked behind an adult filter. (I think that'd be a hoot, frankly, if we got FSoG knocked behind the adult filter, though, in the process of trying to win Amazon back over to our side.) And don't be a douchey dick. If your books ARE flat-out erotica, do NOT go trying to game the system. Those erotica writers who have repeatedly gamed the category system with Amazon are--frankly--assholes, and are the reason the rest of us who write romance/erotic romance are now getting dry-fucked up the ass without lube.

So thank you, fuckheads.

But be polite with dealing with Amazon CS and remember the faceless drone on the other end of the e-mail/chat box is NOT the one responsible for this and isn't out to get you. They're human, too.

This is why I am facebook friends with all my favorite authors - they usually post the direct amazon link when new books are released so I can go directly there to purchase. Of course, I buy all my Siren Publishing authors direct from Siren and have them sent to my Kindle. I do notice that once you have purchased a title Amazon deems "adult" other "adult" titles will show up when you search.